sbirro n.

*paəwr-, Proto-Indo-European root meaning "fire."

It forms all or part of: antipyretic; burro; empyreal; empyrean; fire; pyracanth; pyre; pyretic; pyrexia; pyrite; pyro-; pyrolusite; pyromania; pyrrhic; sbirro.

It is the hypothetical source of/evidence for its existence is provided by: Sanskrit pu, Hittite pahhur "fire;" Armenian hur "fire, torch;" Czech pyr "hot ashes;" Greek pyr, Umbrian pir "fire;" Old English fyr, German Feuer "fire."

"severe sore throat, inflammation or swelling of the throat, extreme tonsillitis," late 14c., quinesie, qwinaci, from Old French quinancie, variant of esquinance (Modern French esquinacie) and from Anglo-Latin quinancia, from Late Latin cynanche, from Greek kynankhē "sore throat," also "dog collar," literally "dog-choking," from kyōn (genitive kynos) "dog" (from PIE root *kwon- "dog") + ankhein "to strangle" (from PIE root *angh- "tight, painfully constricted, painful").

The earlier form in English was squinancy (mid-13c.), from Medieval Latin squinancia and Anglo-French esquinauncy, esquinance. These, with the Modern French form and Spanish esquinancia, Italian schinanzia, etc., have an unetymological parasitic -s- (compare sbirro).

denoting a style of painting in which tones are blended and outlines blurred and dim, giving a misty or smoky appearance, 1847, from Italian sfumato, literally "smoked," from Latin fumus "smoke," from PIE root *dheu- (1) "dust, vapor, smoke." The prefix seems to be unetymological (compare sbirro). Other Italian words in sf- that ever lived in English include sforzando, the musical instruction; sfogato "exhaled" (also in music); and sgraffiti as an art term.